Amazing Slide Show July 26th - Discover the World of Myanmar - one of the most Mysterious Countries in the World!

Discover the World of Burma - one of the most Mysterious Countries in the World!

Come join us on July 26th anddiscover the exotic world of Myanmar -- formerly referred to as “Burma” -

On July 26th, Global Community Nights member Anna Cummings will present a very special slide show of her trip to this extraordinary culture, home to more than 135 different ethnic groups!Anna traveled to Myanmar five years ago and toured the country with a former Buddhist monk over a three week period to see dozens of temples and many places “far off the beaten track”.

This is a slide show not to be missed folks!!

Many still refer to this country as Burma which lies between China and India - with the Andaman Sea to the west and bordering Laos and Thailand on the southeast. Traveling in Burma is still restricted - even today - so we’re lucky to get an inside look courtesy of Anna and her two traveling companions!

By coming to this special meetup event, you'll be amazed when you see images of...

• Rangoon, the capital city that is known for its enormous gold-plated Shwedagon Pagoda. Known in English as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda, this amazing structure is 325 feet high and located in the city of Yangon. The pagoda lies to the west of Kandawgyi Lake on a large hill, thus dominating the entire skyline of the city. It is the most sacred Buddhist pagoda for the Burmese with relics of the past four Buddhas enshrined within!

• Mandalay - the former capital city is the second-largest city and the last royal capital of Burma. Located 445 miles north of Yangon on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, Mandalay has a population of one million people and is the economic hub of Upper Burma and considered the centre of Burmese culture. A continuing influx of Chinese immigrants, mostly from Yunnan Province in the past twenty years, has reshaped the city's ethnic makeup and increased in its commerce with China.

• Inle Lake with its floating villages. The people of Inle Lake (called Intha), some 70,000 of them, live in four cities bordering the lake, in numerous small villages along the lake's shores, and on the lake itself. The population consists predominantly of Intha, with a mix of other Shan, Taungyo, Pa-O (Taungthu), Danu, Kayah, Danaw and Bamar ethnicities. Most are devout Buddhists, and live in simple houses of wood and woven bamboo on stilts; they are largely self-sufficient farmers.

• Bagan with its 2,000 stupas over huge plains, which Anna and her traveling companions saw while riding on horse carts! Everybody gets “stupefied” at Bagan. How many stupas can you hold in your mind at one time? How about more than 2,000 scattered over 26 square miles of open plains the size of Manhattan, popping up like giant mushrooms before your incredulous eyes? Some small, some medium, some huge - with literally thousands of designs, it’s a stupa lover’s paradise!! You’ll never again have to wonder if you’ve communed with enough stupas in your lifetime!• For Anna’s last week of her journey, she went to Ngapali beach by the Andaman Sea. If you like peace and tranquility and love to visit places "far from the madding crowds”, then Ngapali is the beach for you! Situated near Thandwe (Sandoway), one of the ancient Rakhine (formerly Arakan) towns, Ngapali is said to have been named after Naples Italy by a homesick Italian. It is famous for its natural and unspotted beauty even up to this day. The beach is lined with soft white sand, fringed by coconut palms. Unlike today's beaches of Asia, Ngapali is free of noisy beachside bars, crowded people, and hawkers persuading you to buy their things. There is only the natural scenic beauty of the blue sea, white sand and the lovely sun. And the sea is cobalt blue! Wait till you see Anna's pix!For this VERY special slide show and dinner event, we’ll be meeting in The Fireplace Room across from the beach on Cabrillo Boulevard at Rusty’s located at 15 East Cabrillo Boulevard in Santa Barbara. Rusty's is one block south of State Street, right across from the beach. There's a free parking lot behind the restaurant.This special event is being offered to all Global Community Dinner Nights members free of charge. The meetup will start at 7:00pm when you can meet and greet other group members and socialize with all of us while enjoying something to eat or drink. Anna’s slide show presentation will start promptly at 7:30pm.Come and experience world traveler Anna Cummings who has lived more lives than a cat! If you're curious about this really exotic country and would like to meet someone who's seen Burma from the inside, please mark your calendar and join us on July 26th! Please feel free to bring guests with you too – all are welcome!

Creating a closer global community through food, conversation, and new friends -- one bite and one word at a time A place for folks with global interests Have you ever traveled and came back to town - and just felt like you needed to connect with people who understood where you just were, what you saw and how you felt? Now you can. This is a place for travelers and those who seek to be more globally aware to unite and exchange. Its a place to get excited about things happening right in your community and brush up on what is happening outside of it. A place to chat and relax with an extended family. Can't keep up with the world's spinning events? Who can... there are so many! Let's slow down and look at one topic at a time over dinner. Don't feel like you need to be an expert to join this group, all you need is an interest, no one is an expert on everything - but collectively we can all learn a little from each other! Can't keep up with the world's spinning events? Who can... there are so many! Let's slow down and look at one topic at a time. Don't feel like you need to be an expert to join this group, all you need is an interest, no one is an expert on everything - but collectively we can all learn a little from each other! About the dinner nights-- This group will meet a couple times a month for global community dinners sometimes in homes, restaurants or parks. Each dinner we will discuss a different topic informally on a local or global current event. Come when you can, there is no commitment here. Sometimes the dinner will follow with a documentary or movie or a photo slide show. Sometimes we will make food from a particular country or just discuss what was in the paper that day. Group members are open to submit to discuss topics on local or global issues. This is not a forum to criticize others or harshly present topics, to sell anything or to raise funds, only to learn from each other, meet new people, and most importantly create close relationships around a shared interest. Check out more on the "About" page.

Here are a few Meetup descriptions from previous events to show you examples of what we offer in this group:

Please Join Us for an International

Food and Music Party!

Come join us for some fun - we're having anInternational Food and Music Party!!

Please join us for this fun-filled international event. Bring food and music to share from either your country of origin - or a country you've visited and loved. For example, if you were born in India, bring Indian food and Indian music to share... if you're an American, bring an American dish and a CD with American music. If you've visited Jamaica, bring (for example) plantains with salsa and Reggae music. Visited the U.K.? Bring biscuits with marmalade or Yorkshire pudding and rock music. You get the idea, right?

Here's how it works: Everyone will get a taste of the food you bring while listening to the music you select for your portion of the meal. This is not a movie event but rather a three-hour "food sampler" dinner party with music, laughing, and good company. And even better yet, it's free!

If you need help finding music from the country of your choice, please contact me privately by email and I'll show you how to download music from Apple's iTunes store or someplace similar. Amazon.com also sells international music so another option would be to order a CD and bring it with you to the party. Even downloading one or two songs from any online music supplier will suffice - we're just looking to create some atmosphere to accompany the dish you bring to the event.

This dinner party will be held at a private home and we'll only have enough room for nine people altogether, so please RSVP as soon as possible. On the week of the event, I'll send directions by email to everyone who has a confirmed reservation.

See you at the meetup !!

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El Torito Dinner

Bring your stories from your travels in Latin America or come and listen and get ideas for your next adventure!

This year I took a group of students to Ecuador for 3 weeks in Galapagos, Amazon and Andes and another group on a service and leadership semester to Guatemala, Nicarauga and Peru and a few other countries on my own. It's been a wild year! I'd love to share and hear about yours in this New Year!

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Attend a Movie Screening of the Russian Comedy Film,

"The Irony of Fate"

Here it is folks! Your chance to see one of the most treasured comedies in Russia - an all-time classic for both its humor and acting, "The Irony of Fate" starring actors Liya Akhedzhakova, Aleksandr Belyavsky, Barbara Brylska, Georgi Burkov, and Lyubov Dobrzhanskaya.

This film is one of those classics like "It's a Wonderful Life" and "The Wizard of Oz" in America that people watch every year. In Russia, it's a tradition to watch The Irony of Fate during the winter holiday season and it's one of those movies that keeps you laughing - even after you've seen it ten times!

We'll have a potluck dinner before the movie, the details of which will be sent by email to those who RSVP.

This meetup will be a special event from 6:00pm till 10:00pm and you should plan to arrive at 6:00pm for dinner.

The film will be shown in its original Russian language with easy-to-follow English subtitles.Please read the movie reviews below, which will tell you what you're in for!

"This movie combines comedy, drama, and some sort of Christmas fairy tale. The trick that makes this movie work is in excellent acting and in the warm atmosphere that may resemble a good drama theater experience. The movie was made in the 70's. It became an all-time-favorite "Christmas movie" in Russia. Often, it is watched year after year around winter holidays. There are a number of songs with excellent lyrics (e.g. by Pasternak and Ahmatova) that add considerably to the appeal of this movie.

I believe that anyone can enjoy the movie even if you don't know Russian (but do not mind subtitles available on this DVD). Happy new year!"

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"This movie was first aired on December 31st in 1975. The second part was shown on January 1st in 1976. The next day people could not stop talking about this movie. Nadya's orange dress rocked Russian women's world. Thirty years later everyone still talks about this movie. It is the "Christmas Story" for Russians. Eldar Ryazanov, the director, did a superb job with costumes, decorations and actors.

A bit about the film: Ryazanov wasn't sure if the script would be approved for filming by the Committee of Culture of USSR, so he made it into a play at first because it was easier to get approval for plays. Once the permission was obtained, he easily got an approval for the movie. Then came an extensive search for the actors. Someone proposed Andrei Mironov (a Russian sex-symbol and a great actor/singer/dancer) for the part of Ippolit, but Ryazanov felt that no woman would leave Mironov, no matter how negatively he portrayed his character (Mironov was THAT loved by Russian women). Thus Ryazanov picked Yakovlev for that part. Barbara Brylska was a star of Polish Cinema and a perfect match for the role of Nadya, but spoke Russian with a heavy accent. To solve the problem, Valentina Talyzina (who plays one of Nadya's friends in the movie) dubbed her part completely. The hardest part was in finding the actor to play Zhenya. After a long search that gave no result, someone advised Ryazanov to see a play where a young man by the name Andrei Myagkov played a drunk man. After the play was over, Ryazanov handed him the role.

The songs are sang by Alla Pugacheva and Sergei Nikitin - beloved Russian singers and songwriters. Poems by Pasternak, Akhmadulina, Akhmatova, and (one of the most tender and beautiful poems read at the end) Kochetkov make this film beautiful, lyrical and complete. I have not yet met a Russian who does not like this film. All Americans who watched this film loved it, too."

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"This movie is simply wonderful. It's the ultimate chick flick that guys can really enjoy. After watching so many Russian films that were done in fine style, yet were almost always lacking in the "technical" (read budget) department, this movie has it all. Great script, great acting, a director who was matched for this movie in Heaven, and an all around superb production. Even if you don't understand a word in Russian, this movie will not let you down. The subtitles serve to highlight what the screenplay already told you, and the musical scores fit the storyline perfectly. One viewing and you will understand why this movie has become a perennial classic. Buy it and see for yourself. When this DVD arrived today, it turned a so-so workday evening into a great night. Listen to it in Russian, and just let the English subtitles fill in the gaps. Enjoy."

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"What a great combination of comedy, romance, drama and drinking vodka. A movie about a man and a woman whose lives take a sharp turn in the course of one night. Great acting and jokes. I'd say it is a classic and a top 10 movie of Mosfilm. The movie is 3 hours but a good 20 minutes are actors singing. The movie will not disappoint you."

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"Yes, even He up there laughs every time He sees this movie. This is the ultimate comedy, none of the slapstick crap Hollywood gives, and the storyline is very original. It makes fun of the efforts of the Soviet government's efforts to make everybody equal, proof that weren't as bad as one could think. Talk about being really ironic.

Not only will you love the characters, or hate one (Ippolit), but you'll also have fun with its absolute Russianness. It's like an instant immersion to their culture which is a very rich one."

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"This is a Christmas screwball comedy that gets better with each viewing. The reason is does is because each viewing brings out subtleties that were not apparent before.

For example, the fact that all mass-produced apartments from the communist era were identical is a given, but the lifestyles and values generated by this environment are pretty darned unique.

The story is akin to the movies made in America during the 1940s, during the Jimmy Stewart, Cary Grant era, when the movies' undercurrents and implications were just as important as the flash and bling of today's films.

If you are tired of all the competitive special effects and razzle-dazzle, and want instead the more human intricacies of dialogue and the emotional roller coaster rides they can engender, all mixed with a splash of gentle humor, this is definitely your cup of tea.

It has become a permanent part of my holiday fare."

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Sights & Sounds of Ancient & Modern Egypt:

A Trip to Sacred and Secular Sights

One of our group members will show short movies, slides, and audio clips of the sights and sounds of Egypt from her recent trip. Commentary on ancient monuments, tourist experiences in visiting those monuments, tourist security, the Egyptian people's daily lives, Egyptian attitudes on America four years after 9/11 and during the first years of the American attack on Iraq. To complement the theme, we can bring Middle Eastern dishes to share -- we can discuss food options as the event nears.

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A Journey Through India

One of our group members will show slides of his 2008 trip to India---Allahabad, Jabulpur, Varanasi, and Rishikesh. He spent a month in India, and fell in love with the country and the people. If you have ever thought about going to India, or if you have been and just want to revisit your memories, come and enjoy this slide presentation and travel tips.

We have reserved for us the meeting room facilities, which will provide a comfortable space. We will order some delicious Indian dishes to share for those who wish to eat, and one of our group members will provide Indian chai to drink. Bring whatever else you would like to drink.